Letters: Know whom to blame as you file your state tax returns

Gov. Rick Snyder delivers his State of the State Address to legislators in the state capitol last year. Later that year, in the lame-duck session of this House and Senate, state lawmakers passed a number of controversial pieces of legislation, including right-to-work and a new Emergency Financial Manager Law.

Punish the students!

Once again, our brilliant Legislature is going to punish the students and their parents because they don't like the way a legal contract has been set up. It's bad enough it was passed without debate in a lame-duck session, so why didn't they just make the law immediate?

Both my kids lost out on "The Promise" money, and now University of Michigan and Wayne State University students will be paying more because the Legislature wants to punish these two schools because they don't like the language of a perfectly legal contract? Our Legislature is getting to be as bad as Washington. Please bring back the Milliken Republicans, who cared more about the State of Michigan than their own party's political agenda.

M.J. O'Hare

Troy

High-tax/low-wage state

The governor and his legislators have raised $1.4 billion in taxes on working families, retirees and even the working poor, all coming due as we file our taxes -- and conveniently after the election.

He helped push divisive right-to-work legislation after promising for two years that he was "not interested," and other pieces of anti-labor legislation with the help of his party's total control of our government. Right-to-work states average 7% lower wages for everyone. Thanks to his leadership, we are now a high tax-low wage state.

The governor and his legislators lowered wages and benefits for state employees, teachers and police and fire fighters, leading us to believe they are the cause of high taxes. Yet our taxes went up, not down! I guess it wasn't wages and benefits after all.

Business needs labor for work as well as for customers. The anti-labor attitude has lowered wages and benefits while corporate profits are at record highs. Economists warn "income inequality is dangerous." Lansing isn't listening.

The governor and his legislators are trying to take credit for the improved economy. The "driver" behind our economy is the auto industry, not the governor and his legislators' votes. The auto industry is investing millions and hiring thousands, and not one of the jobs has anything to do with "magic" coming from Lansing.

What once looked like a promising governorship is proving to be the opposite. His saying one thing and doing the exact opposite record has cost him the trust and the ability to work outside his party

Mike Huckleberry

Former state representative 70th District Greenville

State GOP vs. the people

As his party's standard-bearer, Gov. Rick Snyder's fraud about right-to-work is symptomatic of a larger problem that plagues Republicans: They can no longer be trusted about anything because the Republican Party in Michigan can't even keep its most basic promises.

The party that keeps promising lower taxes has raised taxes on retirees, slapping a new health care tax on ordinary citizens, and jacking up the overall tax burden of families who are already struggling to make ends meet.

The party that denounces government intrusions is itself intruding into local communities, removing elected officials, installing handpicked outside bureaucrats, and reversing voters' rights.

The party that loudly vows to make government smaller is now plotting to hijack Michigan's Electoral College system and change the rules because it doesn't like the results of the 2012 elections.

The party that claims to cherish freedom only throws around the words "freedom" and "choice" when it can no longer sell its ideas to the public -- from reducing workers' voices at the workplace and calling that "choice," to letting unscrupulous companies cut corners and calling that "freedom."

The backward state

Is it just me? Surely other Michiganders are embarrassed by the actions of our legislators and governor. Michigan is beginning to resemble a backward Southern state.

? In the lame-duck session, the state passed and the governor signed a law that makes Michigan a right-to-work state --more like a right-to-benefit-but-not-pay state. Legislators are vindictively trying to punish schools and universities that approved collectively bargained labor contracts that are effective prior to the new law requiring all who benefit to pay union dues. These actions punish students, parents and educational institutions.

? The state passed up funds for and responsibility to lead the state in developing our own health care exchanges, designed to provide Michiganders better access to needed health insurance, all under the guise of resisting implementing the Affordable Care Act.

? Michigan families are beginning to see the effects of some of the anti-women legislation designed to restrict women's right to medical care, including the right to safe and affordable abortions

? Michigan seniors preparing their 2012 income tax returns are beginning to feel the effects of the governor's transfer of our income to his business cronies in the name of creating more jobs. Governor, where are the jobs?

Some of the fault lies with lazy Democrats and independents who didn't vote in the fall of 2010, and with Republicans who have dramatically overreached. We are all paying a huge price.

Robert Johnson

Southgate

State Republicans: Champs of the end around

The Republicans in the state Legislature are throwing a hissy fit because Wayne State University and its teachers union bargained for a legal contract to assure continuity in the education of the students of Wayne State University.

So what do the Republicans do? They hold hearings to question why the university dared to agree to a contract that they had a legal right to do. They falsely accuse University President Allan Gilmour of doing what they have been doing since 2010.

They say he is doing an end around their union-busting right-to-work law -- a law that they passed in a lame-duck session by doing an actual end around the democratic legislative process. Or what about their end around of the vote of the people to repeal the Emergency Manager Law? They rushed through a new law and added a small spending allocation to prevent that new law from being repealed.

The Republicans have been doing nothing but end arounds on the citizens of Michigan to push their right-wing legislative agenda.

Robert J. Kostrzewa

Jackson

Dirty politics

The Michigan Republicans are at it again! Their mantra of keeping government out of our private affairs doesn't seem to apply to university labor contracts. Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour has stated that their new eight-year labor contract will save the university money.

That's not good enough for the conservative, Republican legislators in Lansing, who contend that the WSU labor contract is an end run around their right to work law. They are even considering punishing college students by withholding funding to the universities that have these extended contracts.

This is the height of divisive, hypocritical and shamefully dirty politics.

Daniel Dankoff

Plymouth

The pinch on communities

Finally, some key community leaders are speaking up about the cuts made to the communities because of the cuts made by the Republican legislators -- cuts that a lot people do not feel until it is too late.

Robert J. Dunn

Manchester

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Letters: Know whom to blame as you file your state tax returns

As my family and many others across Michigan file our taxes, we're noticing something: Our taxes are going up. Gov. Rick Snyder and Republicans in Lansing are raising our taxes and taking money out